GUEST BLOG – “Fan in Motion” Kevin Whitaker on the CBA tournament

About Me: If you’re a longtime reader of the TU blogs, you may remember me from Fan In Motion, my thoughts about Section II hoops (and football) while attending high school. These days, I am a sophomore at Princeton University, tentatively majoring in economics but taking as many journalism classes as I can. I worked for the Tri-City ValleyCats this summer, including writing for the team website, and I’ve been writing plentyfor the sports section of our student paper. I still love to cover and analyze sports, and am seriously considering a career in sports journalism down the road.

This week’s CBA Tournament features two of Eric’s top five teams in Class AA – the hosts and Bethlehem – as well as a pair of teams from downstate. St. Peter’s (of Staten Island) entered the tournament at 6-1 in the city Catholic league, while Middletown, from Section 9, was 4-1. Neither team is ranked in the most recent state poll (CBA is #7 in Class AA), but both looked good and either would probably be a top-five team in Section 2.

Bethlehem tipped first, against St. Peter’s. The downstate team jumped out to a big lead in the battle of Eagles (St. Peter’s are Golden, Bethlehem’s the natural flavor), but a late Bethlehem run cut the margin to 16-11 after one quarter.

St. Peter’s was clearly the quicker team, exploiting that edge to get into the lane on offense seemingly at will. But its agility was even more obvious on the defensive end. You’ve certainly heard the cliché that defenders should “beat their man to the spot?” I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a better example of that than St. Peter’s in the first half. The Golden Eagles started using their speed for some aggressive traps, which the other Eagles handled fairly well in the game’s middle stages.

To their credit, the Bethlehem wings did well to find space even when they found their path blocked; on one memorable play in the second quarter, sophomore Nate Kane was stopped on a drive, spun back the other way and fed Scott Clas for an easy bucket inside. Many of Bethlehem’s buckets were assisted; a corner three from Casey McGraw on a kick-out pulled the Eagles within one possession. But St. Peter’s came back with a mini-run, ending the half up ten.

I haven’t looked at all of this year’s rosters yet, but off the top of my head it’s been a while since we’ve seen a Suburban Council team as big as Bethlehem this year…the last comparable team I can remember was Colonie’s 6’6” duo of Sean Peer and Herb Tedford. Four Eagles above 6’4” made a significant impact tonight – Bryan Dolan, Ryan Stempsey, Scott Clas and Casey McGraw. Despite all its height, Bethlehem rarely ran true post-ups for any of its bigs. The offense worked outside-in, relying on the perimeter players to open up lanes and make passes inside for layups.

Most teams with that much size control the paint, but Bethlehem’s interior defense was weak. The bigs, admittedly not usually getting much help from their teammates, were slow to rotate over onto the quick St. Peter’s guards and allowed a lot of un- or poorly-contested shots at the rim, even though the Eagles had a significant size advantage at nearly every position. I’m sure Bethlehem isn’t used to facing those kind of teams, or needing that kind of interior presence, in the Suburban Council, but it will in sectionals.

Leading scorer Jordan Sperber hit three jumpers late in the third period – which would turn out to be his only field goals of the game – including one from beyond the arc. But the Golden Eagles, largely thanks to very good ball movement, scored enough to hold a ten-point lead after three.

Fun with rosters: Sperber is listed at 5’11”. He is actually two inches shorter than Shane Natale, listed at 5’10”.

St. Peter’s countered Bethlehem’s size by going super-small… at least three Golden Eagles were no taller than 5’7”, possibly shorter (they don’t have heights listed on their roster, and after seeing them I can understand why), and played two together for stretches of the fourth quarter. Bethlehem got so, so, so many offensive rebounds in the final quarter – I wish I had been keeping track – but St. Peter’s made it work somehow.

Another odd thing about St. Peter’s: watching that offense, you would think the three-point line was purely for decoration. Golden Eagles would often spot up and receive passes with their feet on the line instead of behind it; while they usually looked to drive or pass, it was still a strange sight. Even stranger was that while warming up for the second half, when they were shooting from the outside, practically every other player took a shot with their foot on the line, the least-efficient shot in basketball.

Early in the fourth quarter, a comeback seemed awfully unlikely. Bethlehem turned the ball over on each of its first four possessions, and the fifth produced a well-contested floater that hit nothing but air. Natale – who adds a really nice pace to Bethlehem’s game – finally went coast-to-coast for the Eagles’ first field goal of the half, but his team still trailed by 11 at the six-minute mark.

A few minutes later, it was the Golden Eagles’ turn to have butterfingers (the two teams combined for 14 turnovers in the eight-minute period, which is pretty ugly). On consecutive possessions, St. Peter’s failed to get the ball across halfcourt; Bethlehem turned the steals into a total of three points (even with two missed free throws), pulling within two possessions.

A.G. Irons then made a strange call…down two possessions, with 1:12 remaining, and immediately after forcing two consecutive turnovers, he ordered his players to foul. I’m honestly not sure if that was the right or wrong call, but it was earlier than most coaches would start fouling. Props to him for having the guts to make an unconventional move, I guess, but I think the last seventy seconds of game time took an hour and a half. Stempsey hit a three-pointer, his first of the season, and then rebounded a missed free throw to produce another three-point possession. The Eagles could never come closer than four points, however, thanks to the prodigious free-throw shooting of Vernon Maddox – 11 of 12 on the game and all eight down the stretch.

Before CBA’s game, the hosts unveiled a banner commemorating last year’s state championship. All of the players from last year’s team were back for the ceremony, save for two that had college team commitments. The banner marked CBA’s fifth state championship, and the first since 1986 (the previous four were for riflery, track x2, and baseball).

CBA doesn’t have a ton of seating, but the gym was about 85-90% full by the time the Brothers tipped, which is quite good for a holiday-week game against an out-of-section foe. CBA really struggled to shoot the ball in the first half: star senior Galal Cancer made just one of seven attempts from the floor, while leading scorer to that point Max Weaver went 0-for-3.

Fortunately for the Brothers, Middletown had an offensive problem of its own: holding onto the ball. The visitors got out to a quick 6-0 lead, but would turn the ball over six times in the first quarter and four more in the second.

Facing a shutout early in the first quarter, Weaver airballed a three – the first sign that he would have a bad night – but Joe Krong was there for the rebound and putback, finally getting the Brothers on the board. They would not stop there, however, rolling off a 10-0 run to take the lead. Cancer had a hand in the final eight points: he had two assists for easy baskets at the rim and a third would-be assist for two free throws, then capped the run with a fast-break layup.

Cancer also showed off a really nice move a couple times, a hop-step while gathering the ball in the lane (kinda like this). He missed one near the end of a first quarter but drew a foul, and hit one for a three-point play in the second. Getting to the line is a big part of Cancer’s game, and he converts at a pretty good rate (75%).

CBA is really, really athletic this year. The hosts looked great on the break, especially early on, and I counted at least five blocks in the first half alone (mostly from Nate Robinson and Christian Signor, both 6’6”). Like Bethlehem, CBA didn’t run a lot of true post-ups early on, instead waiting for the passers to find a lane to a forward with a seal for a layup; this comes as a bit of a change from the Holle/Kennedy/Stire Brothers I remember seeing. (The first completed post-up I noted was Krong at the 1:10 mark of the second quarter, though they did run several after halftime.)

The CBA lead peaked at 21-10 early in the second quarter, a 21-4 run after the first two minutes. The Brothers still led by ten after a Krong triple late in the half, but a few baskets inside and a teardrop floater closed the gap to 29-26 at halftime.

It wouldn’t stay that way for long. Cancer hit a pull-up jumper and Krong hit a pair of triples, immediately stretching the lead to double digits. Middletown turned the ball over twice in the first two minutes and would commit five in the period, though strangely CBA had little to do with any of them – they were mostly freak plays, like players slipping or bouncing the ball off their knees, or travels.

Not much later, Krong hit yet another triple (fourth of the game), sparking a 10-0 run that would conclude with Signor’s second NBA-range three, effectively ending the game. CBA did not turn the ball over once in the period until there were ten seconds left, when Cancer tried to pass to a roller who had fallen to the floor.

The Brothers added a dagger at the horn with one of the best-run end-of-period plays I’ve seen at any level. CBA inbounded to Cancer off a made free throw with less than four seconds left; Cancer took one dribble then fired a 50-foot pass to Brendan Dufort, who banked it in from ten feet. I thought he released the ball a fraction of a second after the buzzer, but the shot counted, and the hosts led by 20. I counted five assists for Cancer on the game, plus at least one free-throw assist and a hockey assist off penetration on one of Krong’s threes.

CBA’s starting lineup for the fourth quarter: Cancer, Weaver, Dufort, Signor and Taylor Mulvey. What do all those players have in common? They are all at least 6’2”, averaging 6’4”. I don’t think any other team in the section can put a lineup like that on the floor.

Cancer, of course, plays much bigger than his height. I’m happy that he’ll be getting a great education, and I generally love to see Section 2 players do well at the next level, but I really, really don’t like the idea of seeing him play against us twice a year for Cornell. Cancer had a couple “holy crap” rebounds on the offensive end, finishing one with a putback in the third quarter. He also drew a clear charge in transition early in the fourth, and ran a rare postup late in the period, finishing over two taller defenders.

Anyone who thinks CBA gets all the calls should have watched the fourth quarter of this game, particularly the first four minutes…every borderline whistle seemed to go against them. There were more touch fouls, both ways, than I’ve ever seen from the fourth quarter of a blowout game. And for whatever reason, the surface was really an issue – players from both teams, but especially Middletown, kept slipping when trying to make cuts.

Middletown’s Kendrick Ray hit two heat-check threes in the final minutes, but I was more struck by the fact that he was fouling intentionally with the game at 64-46, with a minute and a half left. Really? Of course, CBA did still have four starters in at that point, and did until the final 34 seconds. Also in the final minute, Weaver was fouled 30 feet from the hoop, making both free throws for his only points of the game. Nevertheless, CBA cruised to a 68-53 win.

I think Middletown-Bethlehem should be close tomorrow, though I’ll take Middletown if forced to pick. And I’d make CBA something like a 10-12 point favorite over St. Peter’s.

Thanks to Eric for the opportunity to write – it really felt like old times – and for all the terrific coverage and commentary throughout the winter. -Kevin